The sixties: 60 years later
Exactly sixty years ago it was 1966. Right the middle of the most significant decade in the history of cinema. In the world cinema as well as in the Soviet cinema. In the USA New Hollywood was emerging. In France Godard and his comrades were fighting against "bourgeois art", while Claude Lelouch, in opposition to them (yet in their style), was glorifying the ordinary love between a man and a woman. In Britain the Angry Young Men movement was in full swing. In Poland Jerzy Skolimowski and Krzysztof Zanussi joined Andrzej Wajda and Jerzy Kawalerowicz.
In Italy Pier Paolo Pasolini and Bernardo Bertolucci joined Fellini, Antonioni, and Visconti. For two years in a row films from the Czechoslovak New Wave won the Oscar awards. The great Hungarian filmmaker Mikl?s Jancs? showcased his cinematic "ballets" on historical themes, while young Istv?n Szab? and Andr?s Kov?cs were pioneering a cinema of national therapy. Something unbelievable was also coming from Brazil. The Japanese master of art Akira Kurosawa released films, each of which became a global event…
In early 1980s, when "studying" the 1960s in the history of Soviet cinema at VGIK we watched films with our eyes and mouths wide open. "Wings" and "Adventures of a Dentist", "33" and "Workers' Settlement". It's hard to imagine that all these motion pictures were shown in cinemas! But they were. Of course, not on many screens. Klimov and Shepitko couldn't reach the box office records of Gaidai and Ryazanov, but practically anyone who wanted to could enjoy those films. By the way, speaking of Leonid Gaidai and Eldar Ryazanov we should mention that "The Caucasian Captive" and "Beware of the Car" were also released in 1966.
Moreover, that year the great films of the past "Rashomon" (1950) by Akira Kurosawa, "The Road" (1954) by Federico Fellini, "Wild Strawberries" (1957) by Ingmar Bergman hit the Soviet cinema halls.
In 1967 the country was preparing to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the October Revolution of 1917. A new era was beginning. And a new historical period. So let us remember the unforgettable 1966 with kind words and good cinema.
Sergey Lavrentiev